‘Philippines must follow UN decision on comfort women’

MANILA, Philippines — With time running out on the surviving “comfort women,” a counsel to World War II Filipina victims of sexual slavery yesterday urged the Philippine government to immediately indemnify and officially apologize to the survivors of wartime rape by Japanese soldiers.

Lawyer Harry Roque stressed that the government should implement the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) decision by providing reparation and apology for continuing discrimination to the victims.

The number of Malaya Lolas members has dwindled to 21 from 70.

In a decision issued on Wednesday, the UN women’s rights committee found that the Philippines violated the rights of women victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese military during the Second World War by failing to redress the continuous discrimination and suffering they have endured.

The committee concluded that the Philippines had breached its obligations under the CEDAW Convention, noting in particular that the authorities “had failed to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to prohibit all discrimination against women, and protect women’s rights on an equal basis with men.”

CEDAW called for the Philippine government to provide the victims full reparation, including material compensation and an official apology to the survivors, who have suffered decades of physical, psychological and other consequences and continuing discrimination.

“As a State party to CEDAW, we ask our government to take immediate action while the remaining members of the Malaya Lolas are still with us,” Roque said. “I am glad these war victims achieved this legal victory on International Women’s Day.”

“I am extremely grateful as counsel for the victims for the CEDAW decision that the Philippines is in breach of its obligation to provide an adequate remedy to Filipino comfort women during World War II,” he added.

Roque noted that “the state is obliged to fully recognize the victims’ rights that have been trampled, first by the Japanese Imperial army, and later by the inaction of the Philippine executive department since 1998 to this day.”

Aside from issuing an official apology for contravening the 1979 Convention, Roque said the government must restore the victims’ status quo ante (the state of affairs that previously existed) that includes exhaustive psychosexual support, as well as material and moral compensation for the war crime victims.

Roque praised his former UP College Law students Diane Desierto, Neil Silva, Raymond Sandoval, Gary Mallari and Romel Bagares, who worked on the legal case as a project for an international humanitarian law class.

“I acknowledge the efforts of these individuals who are now law professors and practicing lawyers,” Roque said. “I am also thankful to the European Constitutional Rights based in Germany for assisting in bringing the communication with the CEDAW.”

In 2009, Isabelita Vinuya and members of the non-profit Malaya Lolas filed a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court to compel the government to espouse the claims of “comfort women” before the Japanese government.

In 2010, the high court dismissed the Vinuya case for lack of merit. The dismissal enabled Malaya Lolas to file the case before the CEDAW after exhausting domestic legal remedies.

Roque said the Vinuya vs. Executive Secretary has become a textbook case “because the issue on reparation took a back seat to plagiarism issue” related to the decision penned by former associate justice Mariano del Castillo. The Supreme Court also dismissed the case for lack of merit.

They sought to establish that the Philippines had to fulfill its commitments under the treaty, which is also known as CEDAW.

Vinuya, the lead petitioner and for whom the jurisprudence was named, passed away in 2021.

The UN committee noted that the Philippines had waived its right to compensation by signing the Treaty of Peace with Japan, though underlining that it is a case of continuous discrimination.

Members also observed that the Philippine Commission on Women had not addressed the institutionalized system of wartime sexual slavery, its consequences for victims and survivors, or their protection needs.

They further noted that Philippine war veterans, mostly men, “are entitled to special and esteemed treatment from the Government, such as educational benefits, healthcare benefits, old age, disability and death pensions.”

Committee member Marion Bethel said, “This is a symbolic moment of victory for these victims who were previously silenced, ignored, written off and erased from history in the Philippines.”

“The Committee’s views pave the way for restoring their dignity, integrity, reputation and honor,” she added.

Wake-up call

Meanwhile, an advocate said yesterday the findings of a UN women’s rights committee about the Philippine government’s failure to take up the “comfort women’s” cause should serve as a wake-up call for the present administration to support the lolas.

In a dzMM interview, lawyer Dennis Gorecho said the landmark decision of the CEDAW should compel the government to “take official action for the ageing lolas and have their plight recognized in our history as victims of wartime violence.”

Gorecho, now a maritime lawyer, covered the issue of the “comfort women” as a newspaper reporter for the Today newspaper in the 1990s, when the lolas responded to a radio broadcast by beauty queen activist Nelia Sancho to share their horrifying experiences of rape by Japanese soldiers during the occupation.

“(The government) has to take action because the lolas are nearing their twilight years. There is an urgency of the situation as noted by the CEDAW declaration,” Gorecho said in Filipino.

“What will be the use of the official action if the beneficiaries of that legal action are already gone?” he added.

Gorecho is an active member of the “Flowers for Lolas” campaign, which was formed after a bronze comfort woman statue along Roxas Boulevard in Manila was removed in 2018 presumably to avoid offending the Japanese government. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab